Sacked BNP members ‘could claim £10,000’

British National Party members sacked after being ‘outed’ online could claim ‘substantial’ payouts for unfair dismissal.

Party leader Nick Griffin warned employers it would be illegal for them to take action against staff members who belonged to the far-right organisation.

One name on the list was radio presenter Rod Lucas

Some 12,000 BNP supporters have been revealed in the membership list.

‘In the highly unlikely event of… one of our many thousands of members being âexposedâ to their employers and suffering discrimination as a result, a substantial compensation pay-out will be on the cards,’ Mr Griffin said.

Prof Hugh Collins, head of law at the London School of Economic and Political Science, agreed that sacked BNP members could sue for unfair dismissal.

‘There is a freedom of association right which is supposed to protect people’s rights to join political parties.

‘For most workers I would have thought it would be clearly unfair to be dismissed just for being a member of a political party,’ Prof Collins said.

He said compensation could range from £10,000 upwards. One name on the list was radio presenter Rod Lucas. He appeared to be the first victim of the leak, when TalkSport revealed it had sacked him for his links to the BNP.

But last night a TalkSport spokesman said Lucas had in fact joined the BNP only for his research as a freelance journalist.

TalkSport said Lucas therefore had not been sacked, although the station had no plans to use him again at present.